Thursday, December 2, 2010

Kerrzy’s Notebook: Dustup at Quicken Loans Arena?

With LeBron James getting set to return for the first time to the city of Cleveland tonight, there’s one question on just about everyone’s mind - will he do “that powder thing” before the Miami Heat face his old team?

If there’s one thing that “King James” is known for – apart from being really good at basketball and “The Decision,” of course – it’s “that powder thing” he does at the scorers’ table (which is apparently a nightmare for anyone with a drink or a laptop nearby). So, with James playing ball on the visitors side at Quicken Loans Arena for the first time, people like Shaquille O’Neal are wondering: Will he do it?

As if this game needs any more storylines Shaq, a former James teammate in Cleveland, told Ohio.com this week that his new club, the Boston Celtics “have bets [that] he won’t do it.”

Current James teammate Dwyane Wade tells the Associated Press though that he “wouldn’t expect him to do anything different.” What does James say? Here’s more from the AP:

“The powder? I probably will. That’s just a ritual for myself, a routine that I’ve always done, I’ve done on the road. I don’t know. We’ll see. I may change. I don’t know.”

He sounds pretty indecisive – it looks like we’ll all be tuning in to ESPN an hour before the game for “The Decision II: To Powder, Or Not To Powder?”

Further to Shaq’s bet with his teammates, here’s another one…What’ll be colder: The reception LeBron gets from the Cleveland fans, or Cleveland itself (which will be a reminder of why he moved to Florida)?

Never mind the powder or the snow though – what about the shoulder bump?

If you missed it this week, the internet was set ablaze by footage of an awkward moment between LeBron James and his coach, Erik Spoelstra, during the third quarter of a 106-95 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night. Was it an innocent clashing of shoulders, was it a purposeful “beat it, coach” from James, or was it coach Spo showing one of his three stars that he’s not about to back down?

In order to narrow it down, I’m going to go ahead and take option number three away. Why? Check out Spoelstra’s “I was going to turn around here anyways” post-bump pivot (0:26 seconds in). Classic!

That leaves us with “innocent” or “beat it, coach” as our two options. The coach is downplaying the whole thing, saying he didn’t even notice the bump until “people mentioned it after the game” – do you buy that? I don’t!

Either way, I don’t think it’s as big as deal as everyone is making it out to be, but I think it’s fun to take part in the whole “did you see that?!” type thing…So there.

Other stuff…

In honor of Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s over-the-top reaction to LeBron’s decision to leave Cleveland, here is a handy diagram that should be able to help you figure out whether or not you should use Comic Sans MS in your next public document…

You know what would be funny? If Cavs fans welcome King James back with open arms, but ‘boo’ incessantly whenever Zydrunas Ilgauskas touches the ball…

The local Cleveland Fox station reports “through the roof” ticket prices and extra security…and that “beverages will be poured into cups to prevent bottles from being thrown at LeBron” – NICE!

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Who the heck is Kerrzy?

Kerrzy is a Canadian, sports-loving journalist who loves to dish opinion on all things funny, sporty, serious and...well, you get the picture.
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